


A Proper Resolution

by FrenziedPen



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games), The Last of Us 2 (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, But it's nothing in depth though, Canon Rewrite, It's just some better closure for us all, Oneshot, Spoilers, We just needed a better writing for....the golf scene, there are mentions of violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:46:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25772299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrenziedPen/pseuds/FrenziedPen
Summary: What if Abby was able to show a little bit of compassion towards Ellie's pleas during their first meeting? If final words had been shared in that moment, what would Ellie and Joel say to each other?Read ahead for a little head-canon on how I think the story would have went in that moment.A Oneshot fanfic that provides fans of The Last of Us series with a better scene in regards to the infamous "golf scene".
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	A Proper Resolution

There is a thumping noise that echoes in her skull. It pulses over and over and over again, drowning out everything except for the sound of her own wailing. Whether the sound was the frantic pumping of her own heart or the sound of a flesh being battered, broken and bruised...she couldn’t tell. 

“Joel, fucking get up!” The raw command scratches its way through the thick lump that resides in her throat. 

He doesn’t move. He barely blinks. His breath is a mere whisper of what it should be. 

She can feel her powerlessness. She wants to fight with every piece of her being. She wants to scream until there is no more breath in her body and tear away the flesh of the skin that hinders her movement. There’s something...someone holding her down. She tries to look around her and see, but there’s nothing but black. Black and horrific scene before her. The scene that is suffocating her. Strangling her and restraining her. She can feel her powerlessness and as much as she wants to fight it she can’t. She can’t fight it, so instead she begs. 

“Please, stop!” 

The blood that drips from her nose smears onto the tiled floor, giving her mouth the taste of pain and suffering. The liquid that smudges the tile mirrors the ruby drops that fall from the golf club that the woman before her currently gripped. She can’t help the whimper that pulls from her as she watches the offending weapon swings above her shoulders, ready to strike. 

“Please don’t do this…”

Another plea rips itself from her throat as she wriggles and tries to relieve herself of the restraints holding her back from saving one of the few people that she holds dear. 

“Joel, please get up....”

Flashes of times shared with him sparkled in her mind. Giraffes. Spacesuits. Rivers and lakes and the sound of the guitar on a warm summer’s night. The smile he would give her when she would get the chords right. The heartfelt chuckle he let loose when she would glare at him. The peaceful look on his face when he snatched a nap under a nearby tree. 

His face currently was one that was unfamiliar and haunting to her, one that would burn into the deepest parts of her mind and haunt her on the darkest nights. Contorted yet, lax. Full of pain and anguish yet, surrendered. The woman seems to grip the golf club tighter in her hand and readies herself for a killing blow. 

“Please, don’t fucking do this!”

The sound of her voice caused the woman to pause. There was a flinch of her muscles before she rearranged her grip on the weapon. Ellie watched as the woman slowly turned her head in her direction and gave her a conflicted look. There was a moment. A pause.   
  
“Please…”

Two souls stared at each other, either one as vulnerable as the other, before the clatter of metal on tiled floor sounded. Ellie stared at the golf club, watched as it wobbled against the ground before settling. 

“What the hell are you doing,” an angry male voice cut through the air as a pair of boots stomped their way in front of Ellie, blocking her view of Joel. 

“We’ve done enough. He’s going to die anyways…”

“We didn’t come all this way for you to just…”

Whatever conversation happened between them was lost in the sounds of her own agitated breath and heartbreak. She could see the angry exchange between them, but the words they spoke never reached her - as if she were stuck in a void of her own. 

The restraints on her pushed down more as she strained to look passed the boots that blocked her view of Joel. As she continued to struggle, the woman walked past her, giving her an unrecognizable look before she disappeared from sight. Multiple pairs of boots walked past her and when she finally raised her head to try to remember the faces in the room, she found that most people were glaring at the crumpled body lying across the floor from her. As the group trickled out of sight, Ellie watched as one of the individuals that walked passed her paused to give Joel a final kick, growling out a curse in Spanish. 

With a desperate cry, Ellie attempted to crawl forwards towards Joel, surprised when she was actually able to scramble forward. She gave a quick glance around in case anyone tried to pull her away again but found the room empty, except for herself and the two defeated men on the ground. Her hands hovered over Joel’s body, shaking with adrenaline and unsure of what to do. 

“Joel…”

Shimmer couldn’t handle the weight of two grown men on her all the way back to Jackson. Even if she could, there was no way Ellie would be able to navigate through the blizzard coming through. She could at least try to stop the bleeding...there was too much of it around her, seeping into the knees of her jeans. She sniffled, the tangy taste of blood going down her throat causing her to cough, as she started to rip at the hoodie she had on under her coat. It was a thick enough hoodie that it should staunch the bleeding with a few layers. She glanced over at Tommy and wondered if she should be concerned that he hadn’t woken up yet. Slightly distracted in her swirling thoughts, she pressed a bit too hard on one of the uneven fleece strips she was using.

“ellie…”

Her gaze flashed over him in a heartbeat at the sound of his voice and she watched as he twitched slightly, trying to move to push himself up to look at her. She, as slowly and gently as she could, maneuvered him so that his head was in her lap, facing upwards towards her. 

“hey there, ellie…”

The sound of his voice caused her to sharply inhale before attempting to blink back the tears that had been at bay this whole time. When the first tear rolled down her cheek, she felt like his voice had struck a raw chord in her heart. 

“Joel, you’re gonna be ok. It’s gonna be fine. We just gotta get this patched up and wait for the - for the storm and then we’ll be outta here, ok?”

For a moment, he didn’t say anything. His swollen eyes flickered towards where Tommy’s body lay before gazing back up at her. Each breath he took became a harsher version of the last, causing a wheeze to start up within him. 

“You’re gonna be good, ok? We’re gonna get you back to Jackson and...and...and we’ll get you all healed up,” his gaze didn’t leave hers as she babbled. “Maria’ll have you off duty for a little while but then you can just b-bother her about routes and practice your guitar or make more of those old man carvings…” Unable to calm the violent shaking in her hands, she places them on his shoulders and gives a slight squeeze. Who it was really giving more solace to, she wasn’t quite sure. 

“ellie…”

She shushed him, partially to help him keep his strength and partially so she didn’t have to hear his whispering wheeze. He gave a weak shake of his head, barely turning his neck in either direction. 

“just in case….i want...i want...to say i’m sorry,” he said with a shaky breath.

“There’s nothing to apologize for. You’re gonna be fine. Those fuckers are going to be the sorry ones when I get my hands on them,” Ellie snarled through her teeth, wiping at the blood that trickled from her nose. 

“i should...have….told you sooner.”

She paused at the unintentional glare that she was giving the door to the somber room they were in and glanced back down at the man in her lap. There was an emotion in his swollen eyes that she couldn’t quite pinpoint, but she felt the pull at her heart and rethickening of the lump in her throat from it. 

“Joel…”

He gave another weak shake of his head and twitched his index finger in an attempt to shush her instead. 

“we both know....i ain’t….got...much time…” 

“That’s not true, Joel-” 

“dammit, ellie, let me tal-,” he made a pained face before he let out a wet cough, “after I lost sarah….i didn’t….Iididn’t have much in this world...that made me want to _be_ ….made me want to _do_ good. i..i mean, until you came into my life...i...dammit, you gave me hope. even after all this…,” he paused and twitched his finger towards his fucked knee and face, “i’m glad you are in my life. i’m proud...of...who….-”

She flinched at the sharp inhale and cough he did and lightly brushed a hair away from his swollen eye, trying not to drip tears and snot on him. 

“You can’t die. You aren’t allowed.” She gasped through her words as she realized how dire the situation actually was. Watching him get pummeled with the golf club over and over earlier, she was only really reacting to the fact that the man who had pretty much raised her through her preteen and teenage years was being tortured, but now....she realized that she was going to lose him. This wasn’t like that winter in the woods. She was actually going to lose Joel. Through her watery gaze, she could see him still talking, but couldn’t make out any of the words through the sound of her own frantic breath. 

“You can’t leave me. You don’t get to abandon me. You have to _stay_.” Joel’s eyebrows scrunched a bit more as Ellie’s last word sounded more like a high pitched sob. 

The weak smile that he gave her was enough to break the fragile resolve that stopped her from breaking down immediately. Finally letting loose all the tears and gasping sobs she had been holding back, she bent over his body and held him as closely and tightly as she could. He let out a low hiss, but tried to give her as much of a squeeze back as he could. He had so much more that he wanted to tell her. How much she means to him. How he wishes they had more time. But instead, he could only hold her and cry with her. 

She turned her head slightly into the crook of his neck, noticing how slow his breaths were getting and how a few tears cleared pathways through the blood that painted his face. She wiped her own nose on her coat shoulder and let out a long exhale. 

“You..,” she paused and swallowed, trying to speak over the lump in her throat. “You are….the best dad I could have asked for….in this...shit world. I don’t...I don’t know why I was so angry…” Each word came out slowly as though her own sentences were threatening to strangle her. “I...Joel….thank you...I…”

There was a whisper of a touch on her cheek. She turned to see Joel smiling at her as his eyes fluttered between open and closed, another hint of some emotion she couldn’t decipher in his gaze. She heard the wheeze of his inhale before she felt a light pinch on her cheek. 

“ _l_ _ove you too, babygirl…_ ”

She watched as he let out a long and shallow exhale, dropping his hand back to his chest. His eyes fluttered closed and Ellie sat for a moment in stunned silence. She could feel her face contorting: eyebrows knitting together, mouth pulling drastically downward as her bottom lip wavered, cheeks heating up. 

“Joel…,” she called out softly. 

He didn’t open his eyes. 

“Joel…”

He didn’t smile. 

“Joel….please…”

He just laid there. 

Tommy jolted awake at the desperate wail that escaped Ellie, groaning and pulling himself up slowly as he did. The room spun slightly around him, causing him to stumble as he turned to face Ellie. He glanced between her hunched over, sobbing figure and the limp body of his brother. He placed an unsteady hand on her shoulder and squeezed lightly at the despair in her gaze. 

“I couldn’t…I tried...but they-,” she started to whisper before she glanced back down at the man in her lap. 

“It’s ok. We’ll find ‘em. We’ll get ‘em.”

Ellie stared back at Tommy, unblinking as she saw the hardened resolve in his eyes as he stared at his brother. The seconds ticked by as the two of them turned their gaze towards the window. The storm was still going at full force, covering the ground in a blinding sheet of white. There was no way they would be able to get back to Jackson in this weather. Shimmer would break an ankle before she made it even halfway down the hill. 

“I’m going to fucking kill them.”

She wasn’t quite sure how Tommy would react to her words, but now that the sadness had subsided slightly...she could feel the anger boiling inside her. She pulled a ripped piece of fabric over Joel’s eyes as her mind involuntarily replayed the brutal swing of the golf club. 

“I don’t care how far I have to travel or how long it will take. They’re gonna fucking pay for this.” 

When she finally looked up, she saw Tommy staring out the window with a clenched jaw. He squeezed her shoulder again before looking down at her. 

“We’ll get ‘em together, Ellie. Ain’t no way we’ll let them get away with this. No fucking way…”

Ellie nodded before turning her view back to the window as well. As soon as this snow cleared up….as soon as they buried Joel in Jackson…they would search every inch of every state until they found the fuckers that did this. Joel wouldn’t die in vain. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you very much for reading this oneshot!
> 
> I'm always learning how to better my writing, but sometimes my emotions really get in the way of an amazing piece of art. 
> 
> That was the case with this oneshot. I actually DNF'd the game because I was frustrated with the story and how it was going. I've got a few other oneshots that I want to try to write in regards to the game, so this may end up being a part of a collection. (I certainly hope so.)
> 
> Feel free to leave your comments and kudos (possibly suggestions for other scene rewrites or whatnot)!
> 
> Toodles~


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